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Serious question, does a handshake deal on a $900 truck bed count as a contract if I have a text saying 'yeah bring the cash Friday'?
Sold my old truck bed to a guy in Mesa back in March. He couldn't pay all at once so we did a handshake deal, $900 total, and he took the bed with $400 down. I kept a text where he typed 'yeah bring the cash Friday' and nothing else. Come Friday he ghosts me, then shows up 3 weeks later saying the bed was cracked and he wants his $400 back. Turns out Arizona has a statute of frauds that only kicks in over a certain dollar amount for sale of goods, and $900 slides under it, so my dumb little text might be all I have. Went to small claims and the judge asked if the text was the whole deal, and I said yes, and he just nodded. Has anyone here dealt with a text message counting as a written contract in a small claims case? I'm curious if it holds up when the other guy claims the deal was different.
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morganmartinez9d ago
Kind of a side note here, but that "yeah bring the cash Friday" text proves he owed you money and planned to pay it. Once he says the bed was cracked and he wants his $400 back, he just admitted the deal happened and he took the bed. That's worth more than the text itself, in my experience. A guy can't say "the deal was different" and then describe the same deal in his own defense. Your mileage may vary by judge, but that little flip is probably your best card.
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